There is a really spectacular cycling road connection the islands of Honshu and Shikoku in Japan. It is possible to rent a bike in either Onomichi (Honshu) or Imabara (Shikoku) and leave it in the other town. The distance between these towns are 80 kilometer (it is 70 km if you can rent or leave the bike at the bridge outside Imabara). In my case I left the bike in Imabara city near the railway station. There are seven bridges and six islands to pass on this wonderful journey across the Japanese Inland Sea.

I believe Panama City is underrated as a tourist destination! Tocumen airport is probably one of the best in the whole Latin America with many direct connections to Europe, North and South America. If arriving from Europe is it worth spending four days in Panama City and continue to Cartagena or Quito in South America?

If so there should one stay in Panama City? Ancon hill there American staff lived during the time the Panama Canal was run by Americans? In old well maintained Casco Viejo with the 1600 century old houses? Stay in centrally located El Cangrejo with wonderful restaurants and affordable hotels? Calzada de Amador the causeway with great restaurants and easy access to Panama Canal? Punta Paitilla the smartest parts of the city there most of the American lives in Panama City?

Sumo wrestling might be the world’s oldest sport still performed today! The sport has a history spanning many centuries’ ancient traditions have been preserved even today! There are many ritual elements such as salt purifications to get rid of evil spirits in the circular ring (dohyõ) before the match begins. The wrestlers themselves have to live according old traditions following strict rules for the clothes they use, the food they eat. This is a very demanding life and certainly not a life for everyone. Sumo wrestling has been through a severe decline but know is more popular than ever before since there are two grand champions (yokozuna).

I stayed in Tokyo for six days, first stop Shinjuku. One stop by subway with the Yamanote line is Shibuya. My goal for the evening was Starbucks Café and the view of the world famous zebra crossings. As usual with the big subway stations or train station in Tokyo you turn up in a shopping Centre. At last back on the street again heading towards the Shibuya zebras a man asked. What cameras are you carrying?

I read in guidebooks that Isla Ometepe is a very nice island in Lake Cocibolca. However I was not too interested in visiting the island. A discussion with an American family in Granada changed my mind. The family came from Chicago in United States. Last year the wife and their children had visited Isla Ometepe. She thought that Isla Ompete was so beautiful so the whole family decided to go to Nicaragua for a second time. I decided I should visit Isla Ometepe as well at least for a couple of days.

A shuttle bus picked me up at Casa Cristina in Antigua for one and a half hour journey to Panajachel. We traveled north on the main high way up into the Guatemalan highlands. After one hour Sololá appeared on basin rim of the lake Atitlán. It was a foggy rainy day, so no view of the word famous lake at this time. Sololá is a heavily populated town with a severe traffic jam. The steep descend down to Lake Atitlán starts immediately at the rim in Sololá. It´s a 600 meter drop down to Lake Atitlán from Sololá situated at 2114 meter. This is the deepest lake of Central America with 340 meter depth. Three volcanos are surrounding the lake creating an extraordinary landscape. Lake Atitlán is dubbed by some the world most beautiful lake.

Sunset at Lake Atitlán

In my point of view there are many other beautiful lakes around the world particularly in South America. After ten minutes driving on the serpentine road down to Panajachel the weather cleared up. It was time for the first nice view of the lake and a high waterfall on the other side of the road. Panajachel is the main resort at Lake Atitlán and for many tourists the jumping off point to other villages around the lake. These villages are served by boats from Panajachel.

Sunset at Lake Atitlán

. The shuttle bus dropped me off at hotel Posada de los Volcanos. This is a nice hotel with very service minded staff. They served the best breakfast I had during my travelling in Guatemala. The hotel is located on the main street a couple of hundred meters from Lake Atitlán shore. If you have a room on the third floor as I had you will have a nice view over the lake. I booked a shuttle bus to the market in Chichicastenango and another shuttle bus back to Antigua through the reception desk at the hotel. Everything worked out very well.

The lake Atitlán shore

To my surprise Panajachel had a very nice Sushi bar located on one of the side streets closed to Posada de los Volcanes. I do recommend visiting this Sushi bar it had a wonderful garden with humming birds. It was far more than just a sushi bar it´s some sort of Japanese culture Centre. There girls come to learn Japanese dance. Of course they had delicious Sushi as well.

Fisherman on Lake Atitlán

Lake Atitlán view

Fishing on Lake Atitlán

After an early breakfast at 07:00 in the morning it was time for the 40 km journey to the market day in Chichicastenango. The shuttle bus left Panajachel at 08:00 and arrived in Chichicastenango at about 09:00. There are two market days in Chichicastenango one on Thursday and the other on Sunday. I do recommend going on Thursday since most of the Guatemalan people visits on the Sunday market day. This is a world famous Indian market of Guatemalan highland and far more than just a market day. These market days are of strong religious importance to the local Indian tribes living in the highlands of Guatemala. On most of my pictures from Chichicastenango smoke will pour up almost everywhere. This is the Shaman priest doing their duty for the Indian tribes by burning incense. In particular this can be seen outside the four hundred old church San Tomás.

I left the beautiful and steamy hot Flores in El Petén for a night Journey to Guatemala City. It was a package with luxury bus to Guatemala City and Shuttle bus to Antigua next morning. After a day in above thirty degree Celsius and about eighty percent humidity it´s nice to enter a cool air-conditioned luxury bus. The journey started at 21:20 in the evening expected arrival time in Guatemala City about 06:30 in the morning. After a couple of hour the 17°C to 18° temperature is not so nice any more. It´s becoming very cool even for a Swedish man. The Guatemalan people were well prepared for a cold journey with sweaters and blankets. My sweater was in my backpack in the luggage compartment. If going by long distance buses in Mexico or central America I recommend having a sweater handy and not in the backpack.

Granada is the right wing city of Nicaragua and Leon is the left wing city of Nicaragua. The political power moved between these two cities. When side got into power it sacked the other city and moved the power to their city. In the end Nicaraguans had had enough of this power struggles and created Managua between those two cities. There is still a lot to see in old colonial Granada funded 1524 although William Walker did his very best to sack the city 1856. Granada is located along the coast of Lake Cocibolca (known internationally as Lake Nicaragua) the world twentieth largest lake. From Managua it is a 47 km journey south to Granada. If you go by chicken bus it will cost one US Dollar for about one hour travel time. Expect to pay 40 US dollar for a hotel room with A/C, TV and hot and cold shower.

It´s early morning in the end of June, I am in Mexico on the Yucatán peninsula, planning my travelling through Central America. Can I go from Tulum in Mexico to Caye Caulker in Belize in one day? There are two routes the first one is bus from Tulum to Belize City and water taxi to Caye Caulker. The second one is bus from Tulum to the city of Chetumal in Mexico and water taxi for one and a half hour to Caye Caulker. The only direct bus to Belize City left during the middle of night so the first route was not an option.

If Salento was unknown for backpackers Salamina is completely unknown. I have not even heard or read anything at all about Salamina before going to Colombia. I stayed in a hostal in Zona Rosa in Manizales and was planning what to do next. The hostal had a leaflet over interesting places in Manizales and around Manizales. Most places were known to me such as Los Nevados, Hacienda Venecia (Coffee tour) but one place was unknown. I asked the manager is Salamina an interesting place? This is one of our most beautiful villages we have in Colombia! A lot of artists, writers and poets have made Salamina a famous village in Colombia. However very few people visits Salamina but I recommend going the village is incredibly beautiful! The carpenters work around the village is astonishing.

Most tourists go to Havana, Trinidad or maybe Santiago de Cuba. Hidden in the middle of these three cities are Camagüey. This is Cuba’s third largest city on dusty plains in the middle of nowhere. Camagüey is a long way from Trinidad but even longer from Havana or Santiago de Cuba. For me it was an eight hour long bus ride from Santiago de Cuba arriving at the hotel in the middle of the night. Most people go to bed at that time but Camagüey fantastic photographic opportunities surprised me. It was darkness like a Charles Dickens city with colors, shades and reflections from the colonial buildings. I grab my camera and tripod for a several hour long stroll through the darky Camagüey.

If interested in Cuban music one should go to Santiago de Cuba. This is the swinging city of Caribbean music particularly just before and during the carnival. Santiago de Cuba is a hotter more vibrant city than the more cool and relaxed Havana. Havana has the amazing old architecture while Santiago de Cuba has the fabulous music. The Patio de Artex is one of the wonderful music clubs along Calle Heredia on the way down to Parque Céspedes. On the square old men playing different instruments are trying to fork out some CUC: s from visiting tourists. A cross Parque Céspedes one can find Casa de Don Diego Velázquez museum. Even the museum has their performing musicians a couple of times a week.

Visiting Yangon in the middle of the monsoon is seeing green crumbling city. The heavy rain makes everything soaked in water. The concrete give way to green plants of different kinds all the buildings are dressed in green. This can´t last forever in the end the concrete walls will dissolve and fall apart. I arrives this green steaming hot city by taxi in the late evening. I asked the driver is this city safe? The driver laughed and said. Indeed, very safe you can walk in the middle of the night in Yangon, no one will ever touch you but you won´t meet anyone either, we have all gone to sleep.

Bagan is South East Asia most important tourist site in the same league as Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Bagan is divided between New Bagan called Nyaungu and Old Bagan. In Nyangungu one can find all the services of a town, police station, hospital, market, restaurants and the cheaper accommodations. This is the arriving point for the buses from other cities. Old Bagan is in a bend of Ayeyarwaddy River several kilometers southeast of Nyaungu. In this part of Bagan are all the better hotels with higher standards since it is closer to all the old famous Padogas and temples of Bagan. I arrived in the middle of the night in NyaungU so I stayed overnight at In Wa Guest house. They offered a nice room with air-condition, toilet, shower and beddings for 5 US$ (2007). This was dirt cheap compared to our guest houses charging 20US$ for the same standard.

The mighty Kanadan River flows through the Rakhine state of Myanmar into the Bay of Bengal. The area around Kanadan River was once the most important farming area of the whole mainland South East Asia feeding millions of people with rice. After the British walk out of Burma leaving Myanmar to be ruled by despots of different kinds this farming area has dwindled from its glory days. Nowadays it can´t even support its own inhabitants with rice for the day, maybe not even bring rice to the people of Rakhine state. For the brave few backpackers who dares to go to the remotest corner of the world it has been a wet dream to do the Kanadan river journey. I turned this wet dream into an unusually wet river journey in the rainy season of 2007. Are you thinking about going? Please dream on Rakhine state are now closed and the Kanadan River Journey impossible. I will keep feeding your dreams with pictures and ideas from my river journey on Kanadan River.

If you are staying in Madaba it´s possible to make a very nice round tour to different sites of Dead Sea area. This can be done by taxi or rental car. Drive south out of Madaba following the ancient King Highway to Libb.

In Libb turn right to Mukhawir and continue for about 15 km until you come up on a high ridge with a splendid view over the Dead Sea and Herod’s the Great Palace of Machaerus ruin. This is the place there Salome danced her famous seductive dance for King Herod.

I used Madaba and Mariam hotel as a base for my travelling in Jordan. The best strategy for travelling long distances in Jordan is renting a car. A rental car work out far cheaper than Mariam hotels very cheap taxi deals on long distance travelling. You might think it´s difficult to drive in Jordan? I can say it´s surprisingly easy! It´s also very safe, Jordan has few accidents and many speed bumps. This brings the speed down in road crossings. As a matter of fact there are two speed bumps in every road crossing on the main roads. Jordan has millions of speed bumps.

I was thinking about visiting Jerusalem but Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak talked about invading Syria. Was it a good idea to visit Jerusalem? I asked people at Madaba hotel. They said, do go! You should know, Israeli Politian’s talk with a big mouth and do little. The Israeli people must be kept insecure, our wise their system won´t work!

If traveling around Jordan using Madaba as a base, Jerusalem is only 70 km away. It took me 2 hour 30 minutes to complete the journey from a hotel in Madaba to a hotel in Jerusalem. I needed the exact same time on the returning tour from Jerusalem back to Madaba again. I left both hotels at 9:15 in the morning and arrived at 11:45 at my destination.

Wadi Ibn Hammad is one of Jordan’s most beautiful canyons. This canyon has everything steep canyon walls, colors, frogs, plants, waterfalls. Best of all, you can have it all for yourself; this canyon is almost completely unknown in the tourist industry.

Most people visiting the Dead Sea stay at expensive hotel resorts at the northern shore. In fact, there is an interesting budget alternative 30 km south in Wadi Mujib national park. Wadi Mujib is the Grand Canyon of Jordan, a fantastic area for walking, canyoning.

Santiago de Cuba

I arrived in Santiago de Cuba five days before the Carnival in Santiago De Cuba. My Casa particular (Cuban bed and breakfast) was on Calle Heredia about five minutes walking down to Parque Céspedes. Santiago de Cuba was dressing up for the carnival. Hugo Chavez was coming to visit Raul Castro so it was necessary to paint the front side on all houses along the way the carnival cortège would follow from the start to the finish at Parque Céspedes. All over the city people were training dance steps, preparing dresses for the carnival. One could hear music in each street corner, actually the same music everywhere, Santiago de Cuba was like a gigantic orchestra playing these rhythms. I was a vibration as special feeling one ca only feel in eastern Cuba on the Caribbean side.

Landmannalaugar

Landmannalaugar about 30 km east of Hekla in the inner of Iceland is probably one Europe’s most extraordinary places. One can reach this wilderness area with a bus from Reykjavík. The journey takes five and a half hour and the bus ride starts at 8:30 in the morning. Buy the South Circle pass at Trex in the bus station in Reykjavík and include Vik in your schedule. There is a possibility to extend the journey to Skaftafjell as well. If you go see to what you have best possible tent, sleeping bag, backpack and walking boots. You will need a tent that can withstand a storm in the open landscape without any wind protections. One can expect surprisingly cold weather even in the middle of summer with snow and temperatures below zero degrees celsius. Bring a warm sleeping bag with you! Stock up on food in Reykjavík harbor area, if you decide to break the journey into Landmannalaugar, Sellfors is another good are to stock up on food. If you are unsure about the standard of your equipment rent a hut but book as far in advance as possible. Landmannalaugar is a fantastic walking country with several possibilities for a day walk. If you are self-sufficient and can carry all your gears, there is the extraordinary fifty-five kilometer walk down to Pórsmörk.

The robes of the buddhist monks

A monk who had studied Buddhism for at least thirty years receives a robe as a gift from the local spinning-mill at Inle lake. Normally, the monk begins his studies at age of twenty, but he must start before he is twenty-seven years old. The process of manufacturing the robe follows the cycle of the moon. One cut the Lotus lowers stems at the full moon. Each process in the spinning-mill is according to the phases of the moon so the monks’ robes are ready for the next full moon. The owner said in the end of July, I will give six monks their robes during their initiating process, since they have completed their thirty year studies. According to the owner Burma had two monks on the highest level belonging to two different paths. The government pays all their expenditures.

Addis Ababa

I stayed at hotel Wutma in the Piazza area in Addis Ababa for 60 Birr / night about 8 US dollars. This is a small nice budget hotel with a clean room and hot shower. It was in the end of my traveling around Ethiopia and had five more days before flying home. I was at the Piazza then a young man said, do you know me? My answer was no! He said, I am working at hotel Wutma there you are staying. I had not seen the man before. He said, what are you going to do in Addis Ababa? Well, I don´t know? He said, why not rent a car and drive down to the Rift crater lakes?

I had left Holguin and travelled to Gibara on the north coast of Cuba. This is a tranquil sleepy small fishing village which spreads from a calm sparkling bay into the rugged surrounding hills. A nice area to calm down for a few days. The spot there Christopher Columbus first disembark in Cuba on October 28, 1492 is twenty km to the east of Gibara in Play Don Lino. I strolled around in Gibara then I come across a car rental company Cuba-Car. It was next to impossible to rent a car in Holguin so I didn´t have much hope in renting a car in Gibara. The man responsable for the office Raymond said, this office is for Cubans living abroad coming back home on vacation. If they need a car they can rent one. I said what about tourists can they rent a car?

After a twelve-hour rough bus ride during the night from Inle lake I arrived at six a´clock in the morning in Mandalay. I booked a seat in a shared taxi to Pyin U-Lwin for 6500 Kyats (about 5 US$). At nine o´clock the car filled up .with passengers. We left Mandalay in a white Toyota from the good old 1970s. The driver was a hotheaded man without any patience. He drove in a furious speed on the serpentine roads up into the mountains trying to overtake trucks in sharp bends but he usually failed and had to stop quickly. After a couple of hours driving the engine was exhausted and one could smell smoke in the car.

In the late afternoon I arrive in Holguin Cuba’s fourth largest city (195 000) after a long bus ride from Trinidad. There is actually no good reason for a tourist to stay in Holguin this is an industrial city. The old colonial city of Camagüey Cuba’s third largest city (270 0000) west of Holguin is far more interesting and rewarding for tourists. A taxi drove to Casa Particulares Casa de Rosa near the central areas of the town. This casa was spotlessly clean and had hot-water bathroom. In the evening I went out to see what Holguin could offer for entertainment in the middle of the week. I met Ramon Quintana on Plaza Calista Garcia.

I arrived in the afternoon after an early morning flight to Dire Dawa (Ethiopia’s second city) from Addis Ababa. Tewodoros Hotel was my choice of budget accommodation in Harar I asked for room 117 or 118 for a view of the hyenas crossing the football pitch at night. The room was clean and tidy with en-suite hot showers for 70 Birr (about 10 US $). There was a water shortage and an enormous smell from the common toilet for the ground floor rooms. The manager said, no problem the water shortage is fixed before the evening! I walked out of the hotel to Harar gate then I was about to go through the gate a lad turned up! I want to be your guide what do say? This was one of the so-called plonkers!

I stayed at the chinese owned hotel Great Wall in Mandalay. I walked towards the city centre it was 20th of July then I first met him the bicycle Trishshaw driver Myint Thein or the Trishaw man as he called himself. He had black hair was surprisingly tall to be a Burmese man in his middle age. Myint asked, do you need my service today, I go anywhere?